Food Required by Animals.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1848, 10 May 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Food Required by Animals.

Nothing like an exact amount of food required per 1,000 pounds live weight for any animal, either for its support in health or for fattening, can be ascertained, owing to the wide difference in habit and digestive organs of individual animals in all herds. "We have only to examine the cattle in almost any farmyard to fzad one cow waxing fat upon the same rations that cause another to grow poor, though one may he the larger, giving more and richer milk — in fact, doing more work on less food than her companion. There may be no accounting for this, but the fact is quite apparent to the owner or close obeerver. We find the same difference among all animals, large or Bmall. Who has not seen a pair of horses, both of which have been fed exactly alike and worked the same, and with no great difference in weight, but one of which would keep fat and the other poor unless frequently stimulated with extra food? With man we find the same or even a greater difference, and it is only necessary to look at the rations or amount of food consumed among the laborers on any of our public or private works, where a large number are employed, to see that size, weight, or amount of work performed have really little to do with quantity of food consumed or actually required to keep a man weighing 150 to 200 pounds in good health and spirits. We have known individuals working in a gang of laborers who would consume at every meal four times as much as others, and still were no larger and did no more work than their companions. Of course, it is not to be denied that we may find the approximate quantities of food required to support animals, but all attempts to establish rules or exact rations will prove futile, owing to the individual characteristics of every breed and species of animals. A favourite theme with physicians has been, " what shall and how much should a man eat to remain healthy and live to a great age?" But, unfortunately for the theorists, nearly all their rules laid down for our guidance in this matter have been broken with impunity, and, we might say, to the great advantage of mankind. There was probably never a more truthful saying than " what is one man's food is another man's poison," for there are hundreds of well-known instances of kinds of food which are positively hurtful to one person being wholesome and nutritious to other 3. To talk and write about what kinds of food are more healthful, and how much more or how little one should eat, are excellent themes for one-idea persons to discußS ; but in practical life they pass for what they are worth, and that is very! ittle.